Lavender

The big lavender in the front triangle garden is looking the best it ever has. It gets irrigation, we've had early monsoon rain, and nights have been cool all spring and early summer. Good conditions for it.

It is swamped on one side by the rangy hesperaloe and overshadowed by the pine on the other side, but it does well enough. It was here when we moved in, I don't know what variety it is.

I trim off the dead flower spikes in winter, and try to clean out the middle where it's gotten woody and bare and leaves collect, but that doesn't really work. Still, it's nice.

Lovely Summer

Summer has been quite lovely so far. Mornings are cool and still and sunny. We're having a real monsoon season with some rain on a few days but a lot of afternoon big puffy clouds and storm cells passing by. Every day. 

I fertilized everything today.
 

With the rain, my greater attention to weekly fertilizing and the hand watering I've been doing, I am getting better and longer lasting results this year. 

The Coronation Gold yarrow by the driveway is still blooming nicely. 

The Sweet Summer Love vine did not reach the top of the shepherd's crook as it has in the past, but it is blooming way longer and more fully.

Other things that have not lasted long or looked very good are much, much better this year.

Water, water, fertilize!!

The kitchen courtyard looks lovely, although plants are still tidy things, not touching at all.

What looks problematic are the butterfly bushes, both this one in the corner of the fence, which is sparse and twiggy and blooming just a bit at the top, as well as the Honeycomb butterfly bush out front. It too looks sparse and not very full.

I guess I'll cut both down to a foot tall for winter and see what they do next year.

The fernbush in front is blooming. Subtle but pretty.

Wind Chime Spinner

I got this small wind chime spinner from Wayfair for $35 to hang on the shepherd's crook in front of the wall of green vine covered fence. 

It has a marble with glow crystals so it lights up at night. Modest and small, not a big chime or installation, just a little thing to break up the flat green wall.

But meh. It came broken, although I can still hang it up and the missing bit of plastic is not noticeable.

It just isn;t much to look at, doesn't;t spin really, and . . . not sure I'll keep it.

I had hung the hummingbird feeder on the shepherds crook in order to break up that expanse, and because having it where it was on the patio was not ideal -- the hummingbirds buzz our heads while we sit out there. Or they get scared away when we're there.

But it got infested with ants. Hung from the crossbeam of the patio vigas, the ants can't reach it, but stuck on a pole in the ground, they swarmed the pole and overran the sugar feeder. Ugh.

So the feeder is back on the chain hanging on the patio. It was too small to do much visually on the shepherd's crook, but the activity caught the eye and it was at least something contrasting against the vine.

This whole strip of garden is evolving. Not there yet. I want something to look at from the patio and from inside the living room. And something interesting in front of that long fence.

I'm not sure this small chime / spinner is anything I'll keep, but at least it won't attract an army of ants.

Observations after the 4th

Fourth of July was noisy but uneventful last night. Mornings are still beautiful and cool.

The Leilani coneflowers in the kitchen courtyard are looking nice and blooming cheerfully. There's an emitter there and I water frequently. But the ones in the dining room window are in too much shade and growing okay but not blooming well.

They need to go somewhere in more sun, but I don't know where.

The bright coreopsis by the deck looks great. It needs daily water in this terra cotta bowl.

The red lambs ears are blooming pretty well, and the white Icicle veronicas look nice with them. (But the one Icicle veronica that I planted in the kitchen courtyard is not doing well. It came up very late, and is still only a six inch blob of foliage, I don't know why. It has an emitter there and I water it.)

The blue fescues in red pots are struggling this year, even though I re-potted each with additional fresh potting soil. This one looks the best and is the only one blooming.

The new cardinal penstemon has glossy vivid red flowers, really nice. But so far it is a tall skinny stalk. It should in future years spread out to something like three feet wide.

Obedient plants are starting to bloom. Now that they do not compete under the birdbath in the thyme carpet, they are getting quite tall.

I love how the early sunrise light slants in through the gate area and lights up this part of the circle garden each morning.

With the rain we have had and the cool weather, everything looks good, even the field is green.

The Front Triangle

The tiny triangle by the front walk needs a re-do. 

The corner anchors the front of the house and is seen up close by all who walk by.

Two hesperaloe plants are too coarse and lanky. The foliage of Texas red yuccas is brown and scraggly, the fronds catch dead leaves, and the tall stalks are floppy.

The stalky blooms lean out over the walkways awkwardly.

The hummingbirds do love the flowers. There are several others in the front yard, so taking these two out won't matter. The others are set back, scattered in a few spots around the yard and not so visible close up as a specimen.

I tried interplanting other things in this little garden -- an upright orange globemallow, a little yellow threadleaf fleabane, two compact pineleaf penstemons, and three marrubium groundcovers to spread out, which they haven't. 

All the small plants get lost in the mess of the Texas red yuccas. 

But what to put in to replace the scraggly hesparaloes? There is irrigation in that spot, quite a few emitters as the space had a lot in it when they installed the irrigation.

And could I dig out the two hesparaloes myself? 

They are not tap rooted, they have fibrous shallow roots. But disposing of the bulk would be a problem. Maybe.

There is a large lavender that can hold its own with the hesperaloes, and it is nice, although it has gotten woody and open in the center. I'd leave that. →

And I planted two pineleaf penstemons that I'd like to keep, maybe add a third. 

They are overtaken by the arching narrow leaves of the yucca to their left.

I'd like something with a more solid form and bigger leaves to contrast with the thin leaved lavender and penstemons, something not so strappy and arching. But what?

This is my view from inside the house, sitting in my favorite chair:

But other than the truncated view from the front room, I rarely see this triangle. I'm not out in the front yard much and I don't walk by my house on the sidewalk. I don't like working out there so close to the road and parked cars and people going by. So I'd want something very low care.

Something round and shrubby? Something tall and narrow to screen our front sliders from passersby?

I need ideas.

Sweet Summer Love on a Slinky

It's fragrant up close. Blooming beautifully. Cool purple in the shade, hot cherry red in sun.

From a distance it doesn't look like much -- blooming only at the top and the dark purple magenta disappears into the greenery somehow. It didn't reach the top of the shepherd's crook, so the overall effect from afar is small, hard to see and receding.

But up close it is delightful and looks delicately cheerful.

Getting Roses Settled

After an inch of soaking rain, it was nice not to have to think about watering anything. I can get up, go about my day and not have to fret over what needs water, what looks okay, what might need water later. 

It's not the actual task of hose watering things, it's the mental work of thinking about it every day. Nice to have a day or two off. But the June sun dries things out quickly even on these pleasant, not too hot days after the rain.

Pretty red petunias

The deep red petunias I picked up at Lowe's in spring are really doing well. What a rich red.

'Playboy' in the ground just planted

I planted the 'Playboy' orange rose today. 

It looks good, it has three emitters right at its base, and after transplant adjustment it should be okay.

It was a big, healthy, sizable plant from Sooner Plant Farm. 

With the rose planted forward a bit and the birdbath a little closer with pots surrounding it, this area below the patio is starting to look like a garden, rather than a strip along the bottom of the fence.

And from inside the living room there is something to look at, composed and interesting.

Something to look at from inside

It's still a big green wall, but the plantings bring the eye forward, which helps. Still, it's a long green flat wall and needs something more, even with the rose eventually gaining some height in the foreground.

I put the hummingbird feeder there. It's easier to access and lower to get to, and it's something . . . something . . . against the green vine.

Still a sold wall of green

The knockout blushing pink rose has finally perked back up after moving it to the pot, and is now putting out healthy new leaves and buds. 

'Blushing Pink' growing well now                                         First transplanted

It had several pink blooms when I moved it, but lost them and dropped some leaves. It's back in form now. It should bloom most of the summer, pretty much nonstop now that it is settled.

Refreshed

After the ¾ inch of rain Tuesday night we got another quarter inch last night. It was again a gentle rain, and everything looks so refreshed with the sun out this morning.  

This June has been unlike others. Usually it's rainless, scorching and awful until July brings some relief. This year has been generously wet and cool except for the few days I was just away in California. 

I'm still waiting for really hot weather, particularly warm nights, so the thyme will spread and fill holes and the petunias will perk up.

Rain When I Returned

These guys!

Jim kept the pots and some of the gardens watered while I was away in California. I had such a good time out there with the cutest grandkids ever.

When I got back only a couple tiny zinnia starts and an obedient plant were wilted, everything else looked fine. The irrigation ran, but it was hot and dry.

I watered well the morning after I got back, including the field. Then it rained that evening. A lot.

We got ¾ of an inch of steady gentle rain. This has been a wet and early start to monsoon season and more is forecast over 4th of July weekend.

The new orange rose arrived while I was gone. It's big. It is in transit shock now, with yellow leaves, but should be fine after it settles in when I plant it this weekend.

Finally Ninety

Well hello, Salvia darcyi 'Vermillion Bluffs'

After a long cool start to June, we have hot dry sunny weather today and the thermometer is up above 90 in mid afternoon. 

Although most plants won't like it and I need to keep everything even more well watered than I was doing (daily soaks plus irrigation), there are a few things that will start to bulk up now:

The yellow petunia, for one. It's been a tiny hail damaged thing with two small stems and two little blooms all spring. It's growing now. 

The strawberry and the basil in pots will get going now too. And some newly planted little things like the Mexican sage -- Salvia darcyi Vermillion Bluffs -- are finally starting to settle in and put out some growth.

The few sticks of Vermillion cuphea in the white bowl are showing new leaves sprouting from below.

But the real benefit to this hot weather will be seeing the thyme carpet fill in under the white bowl. It's been waiting for hot weather.

It has greened up nicely and now just needs to spread into the open dirt patches.

I think it will do that now with hot dry weather. I hope.